Sponsorship marketing and digital media agency PCG-SDM has raised $1 million in an initial funding round to back a new holding company structure, and subsequently hired industry veterans Wade Martin and Brian Gainor for its property consulting and sales units, respectively.
“We brought these companies together based on the notion that combining consulting, analytics, digital media and property representation was something the market wanted,” said PCG-SDM co-founder and managing partner Eric Fernandez, adding that revenue should grow by three times this year and again in 2016. “That’s a notion that has definitely been accepted.”
Investors for the early round of private funding include MediaLink founder and CEO Michael Kassan. Fernandez said the holding company structure was established to ensure vigilance from partners on both sides of the business.
PCG-SDM was created in January 2014 from the amalgam of SportsDesk Media and Property Consulting Group, founded in Chicago seven years ago by Josh Kritzler and Dan Migala. Employee count is now 26. Fernandez said the agency should add five to six staffers in the next 120 days. SportsDesk’s 60-plus clients include the ACC, Big 12, Oklahoma, UCLA, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Hendrick Motorsports and the Chicago Bears.
Martin will be vice president of partnerships. He joins the Chicago-based property representation side of the business, with clients including Minor League Baseball and the Arena Football League.
Martin had been vice president of corporate partnerships for the Detroit Lions since February 2013. Before that, Martin spent five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, last serving as assistant director of corporate sales, marketing and broadcasting.
Gainor joins the corporate consulting side of PCG-SDM as vice president of innovation. Most recently, he was director of global sports and entertainment consulting at GMR. Consulting clients include the International Cricket Council, Minor League Baseball, New Zealand Rugby, San Diego Padres and San Francisco 49ers.
